Strawberry OG Kush @ 400 Watts, recirculating DWC.

DAY 31 (DAY 13 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12x12)
 
CURRENT PPM: 970
 
CURRENT PH: 6.2
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  0
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Full 
 
CURRENT TEMPS: Today it was a little cooler. The cab sat in the low to mid 70's today. Currently sitting at 76F.
 
RH: 40%
 
HEIGHT: The growth upwards has slowed, but it's still slowly growing upwards.
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
Not much new to report: the PH/PPM's remain very stable since the massive add back the other day.
I did dig up my good camera and tried to snap some pics of developing buds.
-TPM
 

 

Hrrrmmm....I didnt even know there WAS a filter on the pump I will have to investigate this tomorrow.
 
-TPM

 

DAY 32 (DAY 14 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12x12)
 
CURRENT PPM: 950
 
CURRENT PH: 6.2
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  0
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Sitting at a nice level, but no longer "full". Addback in 4 - 5 days is what I estimate.
 
CURRENT TEMPS: Still enjoying this "cool" phase. The outside temps today will reach the mid 70's. The cab is currently sitting at 71F.
 
RH: 42%
 
HEIGHT: The growth upwards has slowed for my ladies in the back, but the front ladies still seem to be growing upwards.
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
I am blown away by the stability I am experiencing: no movement in the PH, but slight movement in the PPM. This is,  am assuming, the "golden spot" Lucas talks about.
 
The plants in the back have stopped growing upwards like the plants in the fronts. Likewise, the plants in the back have more developed buds than the plants in the front. It's all good: just slightly varied growth rates.
 
2 weeks of flower down, 6 - 8 weeks to go
-TPM

 

DAY 33 (DAY 15 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12x12)
 
CURRENT PPM: 980
 
CURRENT PH: 6.2
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  0
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Getting lower. The plants are alternating between gobbling up nutes and then gobbling up water. Addback might be sooner than I expected, like within a day or two.
 
CURRENT TEMPS: Still enjoying this "cool" phase. The outside temps today will reach the mid 70's. The cab is currently sitting at 71F.
 
RH: 30%
 
HEIGHT: I am happy to report that solid round buds are now formed in the front plants. The back plants, which are a little smaller, have more developed buds (by about 6 days it looks like) but the taller front plants are quickly catching up.
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
Still experiencing incredible stability (I am not used to this). The PH has not budged in two days, but the water level continues to drop while the PPM's continue to be lowered and raised on their own (lowered when the nutes are gobbled, raised when only water is gobbled). I believe I am sitting at the spot described in the Lucas method.
 
I am keeping pace with the plants and tying branches here and there to make sure all plants have space and are getting light. Most of my grows started out with 4 buckets/plants and I have usualy pulled at least one, usually two by this time due to slow growth or one plant being overwhelmed by the others. I am proud that I am-so far, at least-making sure all 4 babies have what they need.
 
I don't have time to use my good camera on my workdays so here are some OK photots from my crap camera. High quality photos MAY be posted as early as wednesday night, but most certainly by Friday morning. This lightbulb really messes with my eyes AND the quality of the photo :-(
-TPM
 

 

DAY 34 (DAY 16 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12x12)
 
CURRENT PPM: 970
 
CURRENT PH: 6.2
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  0
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: I need to add approx.. 4 gallons back to the res. I may do that tonight, possibly tomorrow.
 
CURRENT TEMPS: Still enjoying this "cool" phase but it's getting warmer again. The outside temps today will reach the high 70's to mid 80's. The cab is currently sitting at 73F.
 
RH: 30%
 
HEIGHT: Leaves were touching my light again so I raised it…again. I may need to re position my light if it needs to be raised any higher.
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
The plants are just gobbling up the water like mad so I need to addback. My lights may need to be re-positioned so that the light hooks are more directly over the light (right now, they are kind of off to the side…hard to explain, but imagine a Y with the two lines up top as my light mount. I need to move those lines closer together so I can raise the light higher).
 
Buds are building on all plants now, including the front plants. The back plants have slightly more developed growth, but everything seems to be coming along.
 
Stay tuned for Friday when I'll have a chance to use my nice camera to take higher quality pics.
-TPM

 

Hi lukfomoe,
   Root rot is the worst…it annihilated one of my grows because I discovered it way too late and I had no idea how to deal with it. I sincerely wish you luck in dealing with your own root rot.
 
I used to use the PH testing kit for my first grow (and as an emergency tester when I dropped and fried my digital testers). I highly recommend buying a cheap digital PH tester: it's worth the money for it's precision alone.
As for filling up the tent…YES! I checked them this morning and again saw leaves touching the cool tube of my light. I have raised the light by 1 rung every day for the past 4 days. ALL of the plants are starting to produce those small hairy white buds, but I'm confused as to why the two plants in the front are so tall while the plants in the back are shorter….but more advanced in their bud production. I've moved the light back and forth to try to emphasize the light on the back, but no matter what I do the plants continue to grow at their own pace.
 
I am glad I decided to flower when I did….those plants are starting to get to the point that they WOULD HAVE reached the top of the tent had I let them grow just an inch or two more before flowering.  Growing “trees” is awesome, it's a fantastic achievement when it can be successfully done, and getting several ounces off of one plant is an amazing feeling. But it takes soooo much work that I try to keep my plants on a smaller scale (personal preference).
 
I've mentioned it before but I've had grows that were farther along and more developed (budwise) than this grow completely die on me, so I try not to get my hopes up and take it one day at a time. I'll be happy when I'm chopping the plants down, but I am cautiously optimistic until that time J
 
I'll be snapping some high quality pics of the plants when I get home tonight, so stay tuned, and again, good luck lukofme with your grow.
 
-TPM

 

DAY 35 (DAY 17 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12x12)
 
CURRENT PPM: 990
 
CURRENT PH: 6.2
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  See journal entry
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Full….but see journal entry.
 
CURRENT TEMPS: Still enjoying this "cool" phase but it's getting warmer again. The outside temps today were in the high 70's to mid 80's. The cab is currently sitting at 77F.
 
RH: 37%
 
HEIGHT: Little buds are everywhere and things continue to grow. My cool tube is actually cool to the touch….I could literally keep the back of my hand on it of as long as I wanted, even directly beneath the bulb, so I am not as worried about leaves touching it as I was before.  
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
 
I got home today and discovered my first “big problem” of the grow. I noticed that one of my buckets was still halfway full, even though I added what should have been more than enough water this morning to fill all buckets. I added another few gallons because maybe I just didn't add enough in the morning, and added some more nutes to bring my PPMs back up. I waited about 10 minutes and checked my low bucket…..which was at the exact same level. Hmmmm.
 
I examined my drip line which appeared to be just down to a drop, not the nice, slow stream I had seen when I set the system up. Unlike the drain line, nothing could really block the drip line within the buckets….so I knew something had to be up with the pump.
With terror, I dipped my arm into the reservoir and pulled the pump out. Some clay buildup and some debris of some sort had clogged the intake port of the pump. I removed it, stuck my arm back inside the reservoir, and spent a minute attaching the pump back to the drip line. BINGO, things are flowing again.
 
SO, I managed to fix that problem: not sure how healthy it is to stick my arm in there…for my arm, or the plants, but there ya go.
 
As a matter of fact, a poster on this thread mentioned that this happened to them…..right about this time! So wow, right on poster: my pump did indeed require a quick cleanup in order to keep the flow going.
 
Right when I finished fixing my pump issue, it was time for lights out in my tent. I took the opportunity to try to catch some “real color” shots of my developing plants. I basically turned my flash on and blindly aimed the camera.
 
Other than that excitement, the pictures speak for themselves.
 
-TPM
 

 

DAY 36 (DAY 18 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12x12)
 
CURRENT PPM: 990
 
CURRENT PH: 6.2
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  0
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Full
 
CURRENT TEMPS: Still enjoying this "cool" phase but it's getting warmer again. The outside temps today were in the high 70's to mid 80's. The cab is currently sitting at 78F.
 
RH: 42%
 
HEIGHT: These beasts keep growing taller and wider. I'm not sure if I can move the light any higher than it is. I was thinking of trying to hang it on one of my center beams, but I think it's too weak to support the light.
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
 Nothing new to report really. Everything seems to be in order. I'm uploading the pics I have now and when my lights go off in a few minutes, I'll snap some true color photos of those and upload them in a separate post.

 

Here are the true color pics.
-TPM

 

Hi  cherokee91red,
   ALL of my previous grows were DWC systems: 5 gallon buckets with 4 gallons of water, an air pump, and a bubble stone. When I had root rot issues, I just started to notice that my roots were turning brown...then dark brown. At first, I assumed it was just the nutes staining the roots. But when my plants died and I finally pulled them, that's when i discovered the rotted slimy roots that had developed. I'm certainly no expert, but I'm going to check out your thread and see if I had similar issues as you.
-TPM

 

DAY 37 (DAY 19 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12x12)
 
CURRENT PPM: 1000 
 
CURRENT PH: 6.2
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  .1 (6.2 à 6.1)
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: I will add 4 gallons of water tomorrow. These babies are gulping water.
 
CURRENT TEMPS: Still enjoying this "cool" phase but it's getting warmer again. The outside temps today were in the high 70's to mid 80's. The cab is currently sitting at 76F.
 
RH: 40%
 
HEIGHT: These beasts keep growing taller and wider. I was able to move the light up a few more rungs and I may try to hang the light in the center….I will play around with some ideas.  
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
 Things continue to roll on. My PPM reader stopped working: I think it just ran out of batteries and getting a brand new one was about the same as buying batteries so I just got a new one. My PPM's are a little high, the plant seemed to prefer the 950 range, but I'm going to add 4 gallons of water tomorrow so I will be able to get those PPMs more into my preferred range when I do that.
 
Buds continue to pepper the plants. I'm just continuing to tie down and tighten the branches of my monster front plants so they don't interfere with the nice bud producing back plants.
This post will have pics with light on, a post will follow with pics of lights off.
 

 

Lights out!

 

DAY 38 (DAY 20 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12x12)
 
CURRENT PPM: 980 
 
CURRENT PH: 6.2
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  0
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Full: added 4 gallons this morning. 
 
CURRENT TEMPS: Still enjoying this "cool" phase but it's getting warmer again. The outside temps today were in the high 70's to mid 80's. The cab is currently sitting at 76F.
 
RH: 40%
 
HEIGHT: These beasts keep growing taller and wider. I did a bunch of crazy tie downs on longer branches to open up the canopy a bit. 
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
Nothing new to report. Enjoy the pictures.
 
-TPM

 

DAY 39 (DAY 21 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12x12)
 
CURRENT PPM: 1020
 
CURRENT PH: 6.2
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  0
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Average. 
 
CURRENT TEMPS: It's getting warmer again. The outside temps today were in the high to mid 80's. The cab is currently sitting at 79.5F.
 
RH: 40%
 
HEIGHT: These ladies are unstoppable
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
I didn't get a chance to snap pics of my ladies today, something I will remedy first thing tomorrow morning. The ladies are sitting comfortably in  a slightly higher 1020 PPM nutrient solution and the PH remains stable at 6.2
 
Branches are starting to grow up and beyond the light, something i haven't experienced since my very first grow. There's only so much I can do at this point so I am just bending and tying and hoping they eventually put all energy into bud production.
-TPM

 

DAY 40 (DAY 22 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12x12)
 
 
 
CURRENT PPM: 1020
 
 
 
CURRENT PH: 6.2
 
 
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  0
 
 
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Average.
 
 
 
CURRENT TEMPS: It's getting warmer again.
 
RH: 40%
 
 
 
HEIGHT: These ladies are unstoppable
 
 
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
 
I'm in a rush for work, but here are a few pics I snapped before heading out.
-TPM